Rabbits and Stories and a Giveaway, Oh My!

I've been try­ing to clear out some of the kids' baby toys and books to make their room a lit­tle less, ahem, clut­tered. Okay, I mean a lit­tle less dis­as­trous. But it's not easy, I've got to do it when they're not home or sud­denly that lit­tle 2-piece baby puz­zle is the most impor­tant item in the world and CANNOT be parted with! And to be hon­est, there are things I can't part with either. A cou­ple of teensy paja­mas, a pair of woolen booties and some trea­sured books. Clas­sics like the Beat­rix Pot­ter series are always going to have a spot on our bookshelves.

So, I was pretty chuffed when I was asked to be a (small!) part of Peter Rabbit's return! The bril­liant Emma Thomp­son has writ­ten a brand new adven­ture of Peter called, A Fur­ther Tale of Peter Rab­bit, just in time for the 110th anniver­sary of the orig­i­nal. The kids and I just read it last night and Peter is as mis­chie­vous as ever. Baby­Gap has cre­ated a limited-edition col­lec­tion inspired by the images from Thompson's new book. It's killing me that my kids are too big to squeeze into the gor­geous pieces! There's a lit­tle blue cardi­gan just like the one Peter wears, a sweet lit­tle bunny-printed dress and soft-knit, bunny-eared hat, among others.

To cel­e­brate the col­lec­tion, Gap is host­ing a spe­cial read­ing series on Jan­u­ary26th at 11 am in stores in sev­eral big North Amer­i­can cities, includ­ing Toronto. Kids will get to hear the new Peter Rab­bit story and enjoy some crafts and snacks. Guess who is read­ing at York­dale this Sat­ur­day? Yep, it's me! CityLine'sTracy Moore will be read­ing at the Eaton Cen­tre store and the lovely Brandy Mer­credi from Heart and Habit will be read­ing at Square One. And here's the really cool part: Gap is part­ner­ing with The Boys and Girls Club of Toronto for a book drive. Kids can bring the books they no longer use and they'll be passed along to kids in need. The first 100 kids who attend the event with books to donate will receive a copy of A Fur­ther Tale of Peter Rab­bit.

If you're in Toronto this week­end, I hope you'll stop by at one of the read­ings. Be sure to say hello if you come to the York­dale read­ing! Esme and Julian are com­ing to cheer me on and I think it's going to be a really great event. And don't for­get to bring some books for the Boys and Girls Club. One lucky SPC reader is going to get to pick up a few pieces of this adorable col­lec­tion. Sign up for SPC's weekly newslet­ter and you could win a $100 gift cer­tifi­cate to Baby­Gap!